By Jonas Lima

Heads may roll within the ranks of security forces in Buea following investigations into the circumstances that led to the disappearance of a suspected Anglophone activist who was being held in detention.

A top security source who pleaded for anonymity for fear of reprisals told The SUN that a certain Akumengwa Neba Ntohnwi jumped detention Thursday, April 25, 2019 hours before he was to be sent to Yaounde.

“Some of the officers who were on duty have been put behind bars. Investigations have been opened. The high command is embarrassed at what happened and has given firm instructions as to how business will be conducted henceforth,” our source said.

The commander of the gendarmerie brigade where the suspect was detained is said to have been grilled by judicial police officers, given that a prison break is not likely to have taken place. Allegations are rife that the escape must have been an inside plot.

Akumengwa Neba Ntohnwi was dozens arrested by security forces following routine raids within the city of Buea to fish out suspected separatists believed to have infiltrated the area. We learnt soldiers were in the chase for separatist fighters who have since been fighting to restore a self-proclaimed state of Ambazonia, the territorial space of Cameroon’s English-speaking North West and South West Regions.

According to reliable information, the said Akumengwa Neba Ntohnwi was arrested on Friday, April 19, 2019 at the Mile 16 checkpoint. Sources at the judicial police say the suspect is a nurse who is believed to have been treating local fighters seeking a breakaway state.

Though our source said the evidence linking Akumengwa Neba Ntohnwi to the Ambazonia revolution remains sketchy, he said assorted information concerning the activities of the outlawed group were found in his phone and gadgets.

After the escape, locals say security forces masked and forced their way into homes, hostels and rooms in two targeted locations in Buea, dragging and beating their occupants.

Those arrested were transported in trucks to the gendarmerie legion, eyewitnesses said. It is not known the number of persons who were arrested, but judicial sources say they were being investigated for involvement in the separatist movement that has since turned into a militia. The escapee Akumengwa Neba Ntohnwi was unfortunately not among those recently taken into custody, a security source regretted.

Political tensions over cultural rights and identity have been growing in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions since 2016 when English-speaking lawyers, students and teachers began protesting against their under-representation and cultural marginalization by the Francophone-dominated government. Violent repression by the security forces resulted in arbitrary arrests, sexual violence, and the killing of several protesters.

Anglophone and Francophone Cameroon were unified in 1961, but there have been long-term disputes over the extent to which government resources and access to employment have been controlled by the French-speaking majority. Although the Anglophone minority constitutes 20 percent of the population of Cameroon, they are concentrated in the Northwest and Southwest regions. President Paul Biya has held power in Cameroon since 1982.

The recent crisis in Cameroon deepened after Anglophone separatists organized large-scale protests from 22 September to 1 October 2017 and symbolically proclaimed independence, establishing a state of “Ambazonia.” During the protests security forces responded with disproportionate and deadly force, leading to at least 40 deaths. Since then, violence between security forces and armed separatists has escalated. Government forces have arbitrarily arrested and tortured detainees, and destroyed a number of villages in the Anglophone regions.

Separatist forces have also killed at least 300 military personnel and attacked teachers for not participating in a separatist boycott. At least 40 schools in the Anglophone region have been burned down. Some armed separatist groups have kidnapped state officials and sought to make the Anglophone areas “ungovernable.” According to the UN, more than 500,000 people have fled their homes as a result of the ongoing violence with more than 50,000 others seeking refuge out of Cameroon.

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What is the way forward now for the two English speaking regions of Cameroon? It has been more than a year since civil disobedience protests began. At the heart of the crisis are grievances over what people in the North West and south west regions feel as marginalisation by the francophone dominated government in Yaoundé. One of the men who called for the demonstrations last year is Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, a lawyer and leader of the outlawed Cameroon Anglophone Consortium of Civil Societies. He is in London right now. He was actually released from a lengthy jail sentence early this year and stood accused on terrorism and treason charges. So why has government given him freedom to move around now?
I was accused of terrorism, secession, incitement to civil war, group rebellion, and also attempt to change the form of the state among others. There were eight charges against me.

And which of the charges do you admit to?
None of the charges, we were innocent of all the things that they said. We did not commit any crime. The consortium was clearly a non-violent organisation. We said it in all our communiqués and press statements. I think we were arrested because they felt that because of our leadership qualities, we were in total control of all what was happening. And our people listened to us. It was more of trying to see how they could kill the movement.

What about the charges calling for secession?
We never called for secession. If you read all the communiqués from the consortium, we talked about a two-state federation. The consortium had never spoken about independence, restoration and secession. And till date, that is the same position that we maintain. We were for a two-state federation; we have never been for secession, restoration or independence.

And that is how it started. You even have supporters in the US calling for independence at the UN, calling for a state called Ambazonia. What do you make of that?
Independence is a very emotional thing. People, everybody likes it. But I look at the reality. I am a realist. You know, I look at the feasibility of having it. I am for a federation [two-state federation] that will bring the Cameroons together – the Anglophones and Francophones – to build a stronger country. Let us be honest, we can have unity in diversity. We can respect each other’s specificity and cultural and linguistic differences. But we are a people, we are one, we can build a stronger nation by being together. I don’t think separation is the panacea for the time being.

And you will agree that is a softer line that calls for independence.
Yes! I think it is a more centric view. I think lots of Anglophones also are now talking about a federation. And I think we have moderate francophones who have joined the call for a federation. Prior to our arrest, federation was a taboo. Discussions about it were taboo. We think now that everybody understands at least that federalism is a form of government that can be acceptable to everybody. And it ends up being a win-win situation. So, it is a balance between those calling for restoration or Southern Cameroons’ independence and those who believe in a unitary state. So, if we can have a federal structure, it will help the country.

The children in those regions have not been going to school. It is over a year now. They stay away from school. And you were the leader of one of the organisations which called for parents to keep their children away from school. Do you still maintain that position?
When we called for kids not to go to school, it was not supposed to be a long term measure. It was supposed to be a short term measure to try to call the attention of the government to address the issues. I believe that now it’s time for kids to go back to school. I believe that it is time for the leadership in the Anglophone community to ensure that kids should go back to school. I urge the leadership to consider that kids should be able to go back to school.

And the ghosts towns, the disruptions to the economy, and small businesses; what should happen to those concerned?
It is a price that we all pay. I can understand a ghost town for one day. But when it is two or three days, I think it is heavy. Most of the business people that I talked to are okay if there is ghost town on Monday. But when you start making it for two or three days, especially in Buea which is considered the silicon mountain, it has a lot of effect on small businesses. They understand, they accept the fact that, I spoke to one guy who has a shop. He said “Presidént, if it is for one day, I understand it is my own price to pay”. We have to start thinking out of the box. We can still continue the struggle while not killing the goose that is laying the golden egg.

You were jailed for eight months. You suffered, but they have eased up on you now. Have you done some kind of deal?
Before I went to jail, I used to work in the UN. So, I have lived in the West for at least 17 years. I travelled at least three times every year. So, it is a continuation of who I am or the things I do. And let’s not forget, before I went to jail, for those who know me, I stay in my house that I built, my office, I own it. I think it is more about people who don’t know whom I am and who really don’t know the kind of person I am made of. But Dr. Fontem Aforteka’a Neba is there. We don’t have our ID cards, our bank accounts are blocked.

Are you in touch with him?
Yes! I mean, we live in the same town. We are constantly in touch.

Are you two still following the same path?
Yes! We are still following the same path. And like I said in one of my interviews on local TV in Cameroon, nobody did cut any deal. Since I left jail, there is nobody in Cameroon; there is no Anglophone in Cameroon who has made the kinds of statements that I have made since I left jail. I want to see one person who has made the statements that I have made since I left jail. Nobody living in Cameroon including the leaders of the opposition, including those who want to run for president, nobody has made the statements that I have made in Cameroon. For somebody who follows the political landscape of Cameroon, it would be shocking for someone to say that because I travel out of the country, [I have cut a deal with government]. I went to Ghana, that was on a UN-VP high level panel discussion on the future of governance in Africa and my ticket was bought by the organisers.

Before the beginning of next year, where do you want to be? Do you want to be in negotiations with Yaoundé?
I think the first thing is I am trying to lobby for us to have an all Anglophone leadership dialogue conference where leadership will meet and try to strategise on immediate, short-term and long-term goals.

So what you are saying is that you want to achieve unity first because you are disunited?
Yes! Among the leadership, there we can have an all Anglophone dialogue forum where everybody will sit hoping that we have a negotiation with government to address some of the issues.

But in the meantime, government is not waiting. You’ve got an election next year. President Biya is going to walk it, isn’t he?
Yes! And I believe that Anglophones also, we have to start thinking how to get into the political process. Because if we have 45-50 parliamentarians, with moderate francophones who are for a federation, then we can make things happen. We cannot be absent from the electoral process. We need to get involved. We need to try to see how we can create a movement; we need to try to see how we can bring likeminded people on board. Because even if we don’t go for elections, others will go, with our representation which will be the people we don’t like, but they will have to represent us for the next five years./.

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Many activists of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, and supporters of other pro-independence movements are still in detention following widespread arrests and killings in the North West and South West regions as thousands thronged the streets on October 1, 2017 to proclaim what they termed the independence of Southern Cameroons which they now call Ambazonia.

The long-lingering Anglophone crisis took a turn for the worst last week when activists operating under the aegis of the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council called for public demonstrations. The mass protests were scheduled to culminate in celebrations on October 1, 2017 the day activists had hoped to declare the independence of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia, a country they clamour to create. They consider October 1 as the independence day of the self-proclaimed Republic of Ambazonia.

Following up on clashes on September 22, protesters again poured out on the streets on October 1 in villages and towns across the North West and South West regions. Their attempts to hoist blue-white flags of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia as a sign of independence were met with stiff resistance by armed forces deployed to the troubled regions.

Amnesty International confirmed up to 17 people being killed by security forces during protests in some Anglophone towns. Security forces opened fire on protesters in Bamenda, Buea and several other towns. The killings took place despite a call for restraint made by the UN secretary general.

Many people were rounded up by security forces and flung into detention cells where they are said to be held under inhuman conditions. Many others, who slipped through the police dragnet, have been fleeing as government has stepped a manhunt for them.

A case is Ngwa Fidelis Azefor, Elizabeth Namomdo Lyonga, Fru Pius, Ngufor Cornelius Ticha, Teke Asonganyi Nalova Justine, Peter Che Nji, Martha Ngam Chia, members of the SCNC, who took part in the march that was staged in Buea on that fateful day, October 1, 2017. The protesters in Buea, over 600 of them among whom was Teke Asonganyi Nalova Justine, began marching from Mile 17 towards the governor’s office and had as destination the Prime Minister’s lodge. They carried peace plants and placards with messages denouncing the government of Cameroon for marginalising Anglophones. Some of the messages read; “leadership is accountability”, “we need equal treatment to both Anglophones and Francophones” “We are tired of marginalisation”, “we want separation”, among others.

However, somewhere around Molyko, the protesters were intercepted by gendarmes and policemen who shot into the crowd and sprayed teargas to disperse the marchers. While some were killed, many arrested, others escaped.

The whereabouts of Teke Asonganyi Nalova Justine and other ringleaders of the Buea protest are not known, but if apprehended she and her accomplices will be tried under the anti-terrorism law whose maximum sentence is the death penalty.

Origin of crisis

It is also worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in November 2016, when Common Law Lawyers in the North West and South West regions went on strike. They were demanding for the return of the federal system of government, redeployment of Civil Law Magistrates back to Civil Law Courts in French Cameroon, among other grievances. Not long after, teachers in the North West and South West regions also went on strike, demanding for the redress of several issues concerning the English system of education.

Things, however, got worst when Anglophones in both regions, who had been fed up with the unfavourable political and economic situation of the country, the use of French as the dominant and official language, and the marginalisation of the Anglophones, joined the strike.

While the Anglophone crisis continues to escalate, International Organisations and other Western powers have called on the Government to address the root cause of the crisis through dialogue.

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The SDF MP stole the show in the hemicycle of the Ngoa Ekelle Glass House last June 21, 2017 when he suddenly reappeared at the National Assembly, demanded the floor and insisted despite being called to order several times by the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril that bills should be relegated to the background in order to first tackle the socio-political unrest in the North West and South West Regions that has prevented students from attending classes for over six months.
When Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril asked if Hon Wirba has finally come out of his hiding, the SDF MP retorted that “Since you failed to protect me, I am back to continue from where I stopped,” challenging the Speaker to send a message to the person who wanted him arrested that they can do so immediately at the National Assembly.
On why he is daring the lion in its den by coming back with an arrest warrant still hanging on him, Hon Joseph Wirba explained that “After three months of reflection, I came to a simple conclusion that if our people of West Cameroon need me, I need to stand up for them. So, it is now the place of the government to decide which place is best suit for Wirba, is it Kondengui or an early grave because I have reconciled with both and that is why I am back.”
He decried the indifference of the regime “I don’t see why bills are examined and voted here for all this time with nothing happening to the common Cameroonian. For how long will this government go on humiliating our people? The people cry out, you don’t listen, more than a million children are out of school for more than six months and the Speaker cannot talk about it. Businesses are closed for half a year because the people are in pains and you don’t listen. Teachers talk, you drive them, some are in jail and others in exile. What are Agbor Balla, Dr Fontem Neba and the others doing in prisons? Their crime is simply that they are different because they come from West Cameroon. Some people call them political prisoners but I call them cultural prisoners.”
Hon Wirba castigated the government for always attempting to force people who are not like them to be like them.
He frowned that “The House Speaker could not even let me express myself on the West Cameroon plight but I had to push as usual to be able to get some space. When you have our Bishops and men of God humiliated in public, what is it that the government really wants? We cannot recall the number of times they had run down Christian Cardinal Tumi for standing by the truth. We have gone through fifty years of pains so they should stop humiliating us.”
Hon Wirba concluded that “The status quo can no longer hold because fifty years is enough.”
In another interview he granted Equinoxe TV, Hon. Neba warned that most of current solutions to the Anglophone crisis by government is a farce, a pretence and just for cosmetic purposes. He insisted that the only solution to the current impasse is a return to the dialogue table. According to him, West Cameroonians are almost reaching a point of rebellion; they are rejecting everything from government.
Quizzed on what he stands for; federalism or secession, The Hon. MP said “I don’t believe in a stance, whether federalism or independence. I believe in our people living in dignity and freedoms. I belief in us going back to the foundation as we came and discuss and let the people decide. We need to reflect and review our history. The people will decide, so we must sit on the table.”

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Said Code is minded to make mention of proof as opposed to evidence, the former, suggests therefore and one may be inclined to deduce that, evidence may be obtained by any measure and means possible, such tacit insinuation of violation leaves a large scope for corruption as it suggest that proof can be fabricated, withheld, overlooked, trivialized, with little or no regard to both authenticity and veracity. Likewise, prescription as opposed to statutes of limitation, charge as opposed to indictment in criminal proceedings in the High Court, seals said Code, to name a few.
Furthermore, Presumption of innocence as contained in its section 8, is cocktailed and or overwhelmed by the application of section 336 ( reason why ‘ Our Activists’; DRs AGBOR BALLA, FONTEM & CO. could not be released on bail pending hearing and determination of their case) , where an accused could be tried, convicted and sentenced in absentia of prosecution witnesses.
Nauseating to note, is the Code’s quietness pertaining to Prerogative Writs, such as, Certiorari, Prohibition and Mandamus. Said Writs, are of very high constitutional importance within the Common Law compasses, and they play a fundamental role in administrative/magisterial law and would have sorted out the red lines between the Common Law and Civil Law systems. How then could we have talked of ‘one and indivisible’? It would have appeared, ‘One and indivisible’ as discoursed today is mere rhetoric.
It would have appeared, likewise, our learned drafters did undermine Common Law values, such as, the aforecited and amongst others. We are of the considered opinion that, such act of indifference, as construed or understood by us was thoughtful/deliberate and would have led to the present legal unrests or discontents in Cameroon today. Supportive of such conviction or opinion, is the President of the Republic’s instructions to create a Common Law Division at the Supreme Court. Why a Common Law Division now?
An exquisite and fabulous piece of procedural or adjective law is that void of inadequacies. The inadequacies of said Code, did, equally propel the assaults and humiliation inflicted on a majority of unarmed Southern Cameroonians, and specifically unarmed Lawyers of Common Law extraction in Buea and Bamenda between the 8th and 10th of October 2016 respectively, by armed security operatives. Said Lawyers did cry for amends relating to said inadequacies but their cries were defied with unprecedented excessive force from security operatives in violation of the Constitution and Cameroon’s International Treaty Commitments.
Conclusively, the president of the Republic’s instructions as stated herein above has proved the Lawyers exquisitely correct. Consequently a presidential clemency becomes necessary to free our detained and exiled Activists, pending a total revision of said Code to meet up with the overt challenges. God bless Cameroon.
BY: Barrister ATOH WALTER M. TCHEMI
MEMBER: HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF THE CAMEROON BAR ASSOCIATION
LEGAL CRITIC, RESEARCHER AND AUTHOR of ‘LGBT Rights are Human Rights’ (Let’s Repeal Our Anti-gay Laws) ISBN: 978-3-330-32004-8, EAN: 9783330320048: Book Language: English, Published on: 2017-05-23, Editor: kvasraudze_lap, copies could be obtained @ morebooks.de)
FOUNDER AND HEAD of THE TIME LAW FIRM, KUMBA
C.E.O: PRO BONO GROUP.
TEL: (00237) 77 62 73 08
atoh@thetimelawfirm.com
www.thetimelawfirm.com

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If we are therefore asking for some restraint on the part of the Speaker of the National Assembly, we are simply flashing our memories back to the treatment the Hon. Speaker accorded one of the House members, Hon. Wilfred Fusi Namukong, SDF Parliamentarian from Bafut-Tuba constituency, on account of his dressing mode.

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Outside more substantive issues of discrimination, domination, subjugation and oppression, some of the most vexing issues to Anglophones include the omnipresence of visual and verbal French which makes them feel like a colonized people. If the government is being lauded for redeploying French-speaking and Civil Law judges out of Common Law jurisdictions, and more Anglophone civil administrators have been appointed to Anglophone jurisdictions to make the people feel at home, the commission should advise the Government to go the whole hug by also immediately redeploying or significantly reducing the number of Police, Gendarmerie and Military officers and other Francophone civil service staff who render service to Anglophones exclusively in French and leaves them feeling demoralized with the insulting, “I don’t understand that your patois”.
The commission should also immediately advise the Government to take radical, dramatic action to pull down sign posts and notice boards which, down to the most remote Anglophone villages, show French as a dominant language, that is bring policy and method to the kind of action opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) member of the National Assembly, Hon. Awudu Mbaya once did in a solo show in Bamenda. These are measures that cannot be taken piecemeal. They must be groundbreaking. They are non-negotiable. It needs no mediation to have them done. They are confidence-building measures. If the commission fails to push the Government to take such radical measures, it will be quickly seen as another white elephant, a ploy to blindfold Anglophones for delay tactics, and it will be roundly rejected. It will thenceforth not receive petitions from aggrieved Anglophones to keep them relevant as the LIVING TOGETHER ombudsman.
Yaounde should not be fooled. The apparent quiet should not encourage anyone to lie on their laurels, hoping the bad blood will dissolve to nowhere or that the poison fumes will dissipate just like that. If the commission has not yet been dismissed by the people, part of the calm may be because of silent expectations that it may deliver something; at least something. The commission must hasten to win hearts and minds by making bold recommendations which the President of the Republic, patron of the commission, must implement immediately to prove his own commitment to see the commission succeed.
In seeking to do mediation before it has made any resounding recommendations at all, the commission is jumping the gun. Its mediation duty, if any, only comes under “any OTHER tasks” (my emphasis) but its primary duties are to guide the Government in taking corrective measures. Section 3 sub 2 of the decree creating the commission, under Chapter II, says of the commission that,
“…it shall be responsible notably for:
-submitting reports and recommendations on issues relating to the protection of bilingualism and multiculturalism to the President of the Republic and the Government;
-monitoring the implementation of constitutional provisions establishing English and French as two official languages of equal status, and especially ensuring their use in all Government services, semi-public bodies as well as State-subsidized body (sic);
-conducting any study or survey and proposing measures likely to strengthen Cameroon’s bilingual and multicultural character;
-preparing and submitting to the President of the Republic draft instruments on bilingualism, multiculturalism and togetherness;
-receiving petitions against discriminations arising from non-compliance with the constitutional provisions on bilingualism, multiculturalism, and reporting thereon to the President of the Republic;
-performing any other tasks assigned to it by the President of the Republic, including mediation.”
“Mediation” as stated in the last point (Point 6) of the Commission’s duties is an “also”, and “also” cannot come before the main points. No please, slow down on this perennial Cameroonian attitude of running after the money even before any work has been done. There is work to do on your desks. Don’t run out just yet!
By the composition of the commission, it has at least some key members who can enable it to hit the road running without wasting time in “conducting any study or survey”. It has two former “prime ministers” or a de jure former prime minister and a former secretary general at the Presidency of the Republic, a de facto prime minister by the job description and realities of the functions of the office.
Without claiming full knowledge of all its members, I can cite Mola Peter Mafany Musonge, former prime minister and head of government for eights year; David Abouem a Choyi, former secretary general at the Presidency of the Republic, who was also governor of the two Anglophone provinces/regions in the 70s and 80s and former minister of Higher Education, one of the top contentious sectors; George Ngwane, author of the proposal for the creation of the commission; and Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle, Bar General Assembly president. Musonge unquestionably has firsthand mastery of how the Government malfunctioned and failed to respect constitutional provisions of bilingualism. Likewise, as former SG/PR, Abouem a Choyi was even doubly a de facto PM as he held the office from 1984 at the time the post of PM had been scrapped.
So why would the commission waste time on distractions or “studies and surveys” when in the portfolios of its key members, there are handy blueprints? On top of the foregoing, Abouem a Choyi in a January 2017 article, gave a masterly, honest diagnosis of the Anglophone problem, tracing its genesis and its manifestations back then. He narrated how former President Ahmadou Ahidjo both sent a fact-finding mission to the field and created an ad hoc committee out of which he (then governor of North West province), Dorothy Njeuma (then vice minister of National Education) and Paul Biya (then prime minister) are surviving members.
Others now of blessed memory, he said were ST Muna, (then speaker of the National Assembly), Ministers Samuel Eboua, Victor Ayissi Mvodo, Samuel Kame, Jean Fochive and the rest were Anglophones: Emmanuel Egbe Tabi, Namata Elangwe, Christian Songwe Bongwa, Joseph Chongwain Awunti, Hon. Thomas Ebongalame and Fon Fusi Yakum Ntaw (then South West governor). Abouem said members were unanimous over the reality of the Anglophone problem. If, as he said, professional obligation of silence prohibits him to divulge the full content of the report from their deliberations of which he was minutes secretary (rapporteur), he and Paul Biya know what they must do to begin solving them if they really mean to.
Also, George Ngwane who, in a June 2016 article advised the government to create a “National bilingual commission” to address the frustrations of Anglophones, months before the present escalation, is the undisputed godfather of the commission. (Prophet or adviser and instigator? That will be for another day.)  But both Ngwane’s standing as author of the blue print and his wealth of understanding of the complexities of the conflict at hand as a major player in the now demonized Consortium, are assets the commission doesn’t have to go searching for before swinging into meaningful action. (Ngwane’s posture as a sellout in the eyes of some Anglophones for standing proudly with the Consortium in their days of glory and tiptoeing away and maintaining a suspicious silence since his comrades were blacklisted, will also be for another day.) That is why I talk of the Musonge/Ngwane Commission. The Musonge/Ngwane/Abouen Commission could even be more appropriate.
The commission is also blessed to have Ntumfor Barrister Nico Halle, a man of many parts who as (former) spokesperson of North West Fons, former president of the Christian Men’s Fellowship of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (one of the aggrieved protagonists) and current president of the Bar General Assembly, can pull some weight, if not a lot, among those groups.
Then take Ama Tutu Muna who as daughter of ST Muna, one of the architects of the now contentious Reunification, brings history and useful experience and character to the commission. If she was criticized for apparent highhandedness during her tenure as minister of Culture, she demonstrated a certain force of character which tells its own story about the plight of Anglophone members of government: she refused to be pushed around as “that little Anglophone girl” in a government wherein Anglophone ministers of good standing find themselves speaking French to Francophone subordinates, including those doing their menial jobs like drivers and domestic workers. Benjamin Itoe is also a former member of government with rich experiences, ready for use by the commission without wasteful diagnosis.
I can’t say much about the head of the National Youth Council, but I may dare to think that Mme Angouing née Ndanga Françoise, being the wife of the minister of Public Service and Administrative Reforms, Michel Ange Angouing, if nothing else, knows a thing or two from informal conversations with her husband, how Anglophones lament their woes in the public service.
There is too much frustration among Anglophones waiting for concrete action, for the commission’s members to dodge and run to the field. By the way, as well as commission members have their unquestionable merits, huge question marks still loom over their credibility in the eyes of angry Anglophones. They must first strive to demonstrate their will to do the people’s will before daring to face a highly suspicious people.
Should the commission take the misstep of going to the field even before it has shown it means business in executing its primary duties, it would be seen to be deceiving the President of the Republic. If President Biya visas their wish to go to the field for so-called mediation, he would be showing to Anglophones, Cameroons in general and the world at large that he meant to whitewash, not sincerely address, the Anglophone problem.

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